


milkshake and a cute boyfriend

by orphan_account



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: M/M, i also just don't want sinna alone in this tag, p lS W riTe more Specs/Romeo gu YS pLE ase, these big goobers are going to make me cry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-04
Updated: 2014-08-04
Packaged: 2018-02-11 18:24:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2078436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Romeo gets ahead of himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	milkshake and a cute boyfriend

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this on tumblr, but then something told me that I should post it on here b/c then Sinna won't be all alone in the Specs/Romeo tag, so I'm taking the plunge and joining her here.
> 
> Please excuse my writing (I know it's been like five fics already), I've been busy with life and stuff and I'm trying to finish up my (still untitled) novel and get it ready for major editing and blah blah blah, formatting was painful, don't kill me this is really not the best thing that I've written and edited, blah blah.
> 
> I was rushing it get it out because editing was going nowhere and I needed to get it off my desktop as soon as I possibly could, and now I can't even look at it without dying slowly inside. The title and summary actually don't say a lot about this so have fun reading guys. 
> 
> If you want the entire explanation and the whole nine yards take a look at the original post here (http://my-sammy-winchester.tumblr.com/tagged/my-fic) and yell at me about that in the tags.

Romeo has been waiting for exactly three years, twenty-four days, five minutes, and seventeen seconds for this moment. He is ready, so utterly, so _completely_ ready that if the world had exploded at that very instant, he still would have his head calm enough to say exactly what he’s going to say.

All he can say, though, in return to whatever deities had brought this golden opportunity to his doorstep is for God to bless that shitty ass café/diner his friends frequent so much. True to word, college kids are broke as broke can be defined, so they usually trying their concoctions of some meal of death – whether it me Craft (was that with a K?) Mac and Cheese, Instant Ramen, Cup Noodles, or microwave something-or-the-other – was not as uncommon as one might think.

Students, however, are beasts at finding hidden gems – whether they get slammed in the face by the door, or actually know that a said place exists, or end up with wrong directions to a college, and perhaps even own aforementioned establishment themselves. (In order – David, Spot, Romeo, and Jack)

The café is about as unassuming as one might imagine, but cheap, out of the way, and owned by a certain Jack Kelly, with practically guaranteed hundred percent customer satisfaction. This usually ends up in daily events of fucking around and attempted study sessions from the nearby college students.

\-- 

Specs wakes up curled into Romeo and something heavy sitting in his gut. He pushes the feeling aside, though, and makes for the kitchen, starting a pot of coffee before heading over to brush his teeth, humming something absently to himself.

He makes it as far as changing into proper clothing and slipping on a jacket, but then Romeo’s behind him, wrapping his arms around Specs’ waist and rising to press a kiss to his cheek. 

“Hey,” Romeo says, blinking a little stupidly at the open windows. His hair looks like it’s going to take over the world, mussed and sticking up all at once, lids still heavy with sleep.

“Hey,” Specs replies fondly, pressing his forehead into his boyfriend’s. He leans down to pull Romeo into a firmer kiss, noses bumping against each other softly 

“Where’y going?” Romeo asks blearily, trying to prevent Specs from picking up his apartment keys. Of course, he decides that pulling him as close as possible to his chest is the way to go.

“To rehearsal, silly,” Specs says, booping Romeo on the nose. “I’ll be back later, okay?”

Romeo sniffles, pouting. “But-.” 

“Don’t ‘but’ me – you have class in an hour,” Specs says, turning toward the door.

“Nooooo,” Romeo groans, collapsing to the ground dramatically. “Don’t leave me alone.”

Specs sends a forlorn down at where Romeo lies on the carpet, the latter waving his hands at Specs like some kind of overgrown kelp bud. “Look,” Specs relinquishes, “You can come visit me in the studio after you get out of class, okay? We can go over to Jack’s café with everybody later on.”

Romeo frowns up at Specs, crossing his arms petulantly before sighing.

“Fine,” he says. “I want a goodbye kiss though.”

“Okay,” Specs says, already leaning over to meet Romeo’s lips. His boyfriend sits up, tugging him closer by his collar, and not letting him go until Specs’ lenses have fogged up so much he can’t see anything.

“Your glasses,” Romeo says smugly, a smile growing happily on his face when Specs splutters. He fumbles with his frames, wiping them against his shirt hurriedly.

He turns redder as it catches on a few buttons. 

Specs presses his hands to his cheeks self-consciously, stuttering out an embarrassed “see you later” as he backs out the door, bumping into the frame a few times – much to Romeo’s chagrin, and the door shuts to his giggling.

Romeo lies in silence for a few seconds, arms spread out on the floor, before he rolls over to his side and stands up, satisfied.

\-- 

“Chocolate milkshake and my cute boyfriend, please,” Romeo says, leaning an arm against the granite countertop.

“Coming right up, and he’s not here,” Albert says, smacking Romeo across the face. The damp towel makes a distant noise when it crosses Romeo’s cheek, and he scowls, rubbing at his reddening skin.

Finch sighs from where he sits next to Crutchie, chin braced against the top of his open textbook, watching Romeo’s daily failure of a pick-up line with a more or less disturbed interest. Crutchie mouths a “fourteen” under his breath, marking something down on his paper.

“A milkshake won’t be the only one that’s com-,” and Albert’s towel makes another trip off his shoulder. Finch chokes down a laugh, snorting into his lemonade down his windpipe, tears glazing his eyes over.

Romeo turns to shoot a dirty look in Finch’s direction; the latter sticking his tongue out in poor retaliation, but their banter is cut short when Albert slaps Romeo upside the head again and asks _cash or credit._

“You’re all horrible people,” Romeo says, though there’s no fire in his tone.

\--

“What happened to Specs anyway?” Crutchie asks suddenly.

“He died,” Albert says, cackling.

Romeo chokes. Specs and Davey return from the netherworld, much to Albert’s displeasure. 

Nobody’s surprised.

\--

“You’re not drinking any of your milkshake,” Specs says quietly, glancing at Romeo across the table.

Romeo doesn’t say anything, and it’s quiet enough that he can practically hear the sounds of Jack and David making out in the supply closet. Or something. Perhaps they’d changed their location today.

“Hello?”

Specs waves a hand in front of his face.

“Yes, what-sorry,” Romeo stutters, shaking himself out of his stupor.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

Specs frowns at Romeo’s answer – his lips twisting in that cute way that only he can, and Romeo wants to kiss that expression silly, just to watch his boyfriend duck his head and try to hide, or perhaps pull his glasses off and mutter something in embarrassment.

“You look like you have a lot on your mind.”

“Uh,” Romeo says. “You could say that?”

Truth be told, he was actually thinking about the different ways that he could give a blowjob, just to watch Specs practically unravel beneath his fingers, his expression pulled in ways that make Romeo fall even more in love. Specs didn’t need to know that, of course. Not if Romeo wanted to make sure that he didn’t spontaneously combust in Jack’s café.

Specs was sensitive like that – sensitive about their relationship, like he was so scared that if he pushed too much, or did something out of the ordinary, Romeo would be gone in a flash. He gets that, though, the insecurities that come with not really knowing how many boundaries were being passed. Neither of them try and drive their relationship elsewhere, anyplace that wouldn’t be comfortable, because that’s how it goes.

They live in quiet tangency, and Romeo respects that. He still flirts like mad, though, just to see Specs’ glasses fog up, or to watch him splutter ~~adorably~~ as he tries to deny something or the other that he was just told.

“Romeo?”

That was Specs again, his fingers nudging the side of his hand.

“Sorry, sorry, I was just...uh…just contemplating the probability of you wanting to share my drink,” Romeo says, barely saving himself from stuffing his fist into his mouth.   

Specs looks uncertain. “If you want me to?”

Romeo rolls his eyes, pushing his glass a little closer to his boyfriend. “I don’t really want it.”

If possible, Specs looks even more concerned.

“Are you sure?” he asks, fingers curling softly around the glass. “I thought that you really liked Jack’s shakes,” he mumbles, staring at the countertop.

It could be where Romeo sits, or the way that Specs’ glasses arch delicately over his nose bridge, but he looks worried.

 _Concerned_ – that one Romeo gets a lot, but _worried_ is usually not on the plate.

Specs sighs, shoulders relaxing under his sweater, before he pulls the drink closer to him, basically cradling it against his chest. He glances up at Romeo a third time, movements slowing when he sees him staring.

“I’m fine. Really,” Romeo insists again, smiling a little. The motion seems to placate his boyfriend, and he smiles in return, pushing his glasses up.

“Okay,” Specs murmurs, going cross-eyed as he tries to watch Romeo lean over and kiss his nose.

“Don’t worry ‘bout me, baby.”

Specs flushes bright pink.

“I can’t get enough of my cute-ass boyfriend sucking something,” Romeo says.

There’s a beat of silence, quiet against the gentle whirring of the coffee machines behind the counter. 

“…through a straw,” he adds belatedly, watching his boyfriend the entire time. Romeo kind of wishes that he’d recorded it.

Specs feels like his face is on fire. So absolutely _utterly_ on fire, and he can’t control the squeak that pushes its way out of his mouth, or the way that he pulls his sweater collar up and over his mouth, his glasses already fogging up, because _damn his stupid boyfriend for saying something like that in public._

Romeo just watches, grin splitting his face the whole time, looking like he’d just won the lottery. Specs looks like he’s imploding upon himself and severely questioning his life morals, or perhaps faced with the sudden appearance of Death itself.

Before anybody realizes what’s going on, Specs stands up, banging his knees on the underside of the table so violently he’s knocked off balance, but he doesn’t care – or doesn’t seem to at least – taking off. He’s out the door in a flash, pressing the shaking heel of his palm against his eyes, despite the way that Romeo latches onto his arm, apologies after apologies slipping out of his mouth. 

Jack and Katherine enter the dining area as suddenly as Specs leaves it.

“Um,” Jack says. Specs shoulders past him, wiping his glasses down on his shirt violently. Jack swears if it gets any more intense, his frames will shatter into ash.  

Katherine looks at Crutchie, mainly because he’s the only one who A) isn’t violently making out with somebody B) laughing they’re ass off or C) crying tears of mirth from behind the cash register.

“Don’t,” he says wearily, tilting into Finch’s arms a little more.

Katherine holds her hands up in gentle defense, and doesn’t push the subject.

\-- 

Nobody sees Specs for another three days, though they know that he’s in class – judging by his flawless attendance records.

Fun fact of the day, though, nobody in their circle of friends actually _has_ class with Specs, so it’s kind of a bust. There were times when Romeo scoured the library in a hopeless search for his boyfriend, and that one instance where David crashed headfirst into Specs, but they were both gone in a second – equally as late to class as the other.

“I _tried_ already, Finch, stop bugging me about it!” Romeo bursts out, practically shoving his phone in his face. He jabs a finger at the screen, opening random applications the whole time. “Do you see that? That says I called him fifty-four fucking times in the past hour, and he still hasn’t picked up, okay? It’s like he fell off the face of the Earth, and it’s really bugging me.”

“Yes, okay, just chill ou- _ROMEO_!” the sentence ends in a shriek, Romeo dumping his glass of water over Jack’s head. He splutters, gasping uselessly, trying to blink away the liquid, and Romeo slaps a napkin onto his face – right over his eyes.

“I don’t think you understand, Kelly,” he hisses, dragging him up by the collar. “I don’t think you understand exactly what I’ve done, and exactly how hard I’m trying to reverse it. So shut up and let me cry about it alone.”

“O-okay,” Crutchie cuts in nervously, a hand wrapped firmly around Romeo’s forearm. “I think Jack has it.”

Crutchie shoots a pointed look at the aforementioned café owner, and despite not being able to see, Jack nods eagerly, throwing two thumbs up in response. Romeo sighs, and settling back heavily in his chair, and crossing his arms.

“I don’t know what to do,” he admits finally, sounding like he’s on the edge of tears. “It hurts because he’s not around anymore.”

Crutchie hugs Romeo from the side, patting his hair comfortingly. David clears his throat.

“Well, uh, would you mind telling us how you’re trying to ‘reverse’…stuff?” he asks, tearing his gaze away from some book he’s reading. “If you’re apologizing for the wrong things, then that kind of cancels out what you’re trying to achieve.”

There’s three beats of silence and a tinny “oh” in the middle of it.

“Can I kiss you now?” Jack asks, peeling the napkin off his face. “Because that was pretty genius.”

David flushes, dropping his gaze to his book. “Um,” he stutters, “Not here?" 

“Hey!” Spot calls, banging a fist against the wall. “You idiots looking for Specs?”

“What about?” Romeo asks.

“He’s back in his apartment, if you want to know.”

“He’s what?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re lying,” Romeo says, eyes narrowed.

Spot sighs, crooking a hip to rest against the wall, rubbing at his temples.

“Sure I hate you guys,” he starts.

Race smacks him in the arm.

“Fine. _Somewhat_ hate you guys,” Spot amends, “I’d never actually lie to you. Plus – Specs looked pretty tired, so – I’m guessing – breakup?”            

“Not a…breakup,” Finch says hesitantly, eyeing the way that Romeo immediately shoots up to his feet. “More of a-.”

“ _Mistake_ ,” Romeo says, tugging his jacket off the back of his chair, and he out the door within seconds. 

Spot spreads his hands sarcastically, the grin that he wears never quite reaching his eyes. “You’re welcome.”

He disappears out the café door.

\--

Romeo runs up five flights of stairs, searching frantically for Specs’ apartment door, before skidding to a stop in front of it, breathing heavily. It takes him a few seconds to straighten out his clothing, giving the sleeve of his jacket a sharp tug until it falls nicer against his shirtsleeves.

He raises a hand to knock, but pauses uncertainly – worrying that he’s going to fuck things up even more, because that’s the last thing that he wants to do. 

Romeo presses shaking hands to his hair, muttering a quiet “you can do this, just make it _right_ ” to himself until he’s caught his breath, jumping with every rumble of a car that passes by.

He sucks in a deep breath, and then slams his knuckles into the door.

Once. Twice. Three times.

He waits, trying to detect some sort of movement from the other side of the wall, but there’s nothing that he can catch – just the steady hum of an AC unit, and the constant “dings” from elevators, which only serve to make him squeak nervously.

Romeo knocks again. Loudly. 

He’s thinking about leaving, but then the door opens with Specs standing on the other side of it, a pair of sweatpants slung low over his lips, a mug of tea in one hand, looking a bit surprised and more than shocked to find Romeo in front of him.

He also looks like he just got out of the shower. Not that Romeo would know anything about that. Heh.

“Um,” Specs says, blinking a little stupidly.

They stare at each other for a while – Romeo focused on a droplet of water that trails down the side of Specs’ neck and onto the collar of his shirt.

“Fuck,” Romeo swears, fingers twitching against his jacket. “Don’t shut the door in my face, I just wanted to apologize about what I said the other day, it was unnecessary and I hope that you can forgive me. I didn’t mean to push something- _can I come in_?” he squeaks nervously, the words tumbling out of his mouth like clockwork – some kind of waterfall of apologies and mangled syllables between his hurried lips.

“Um,” Specs repeats, knocking his glasses back up with an elbow. “Sure?”

“Thanks,” Romeo breathes out, taking a tentative step into the living room. _It was a nice living room_ , he thinks absently to himself, and then resists the urge to slap himself because _he needs to buckle the fuck down and apologize._

“Specs?”

“Hm?”

“Do you want to sit down?”

“Well, I just got back from a five hour rehearsal, so probably,” he says, some unconscious form of mirth in his tone.

“Okay,” Romeo responds, practically pushing him onto the couch. “Okay,” he repeats, settling onto his boyfriend’s lap, and burying his face into his shoulder. He feels Specs’ arms wrap familiarly around his waist. The gesture is grounding. “ _Okay_ ,” he tries again. “Okaaaay, yeah. Okay.”

“I hate to ask, but, um, are you alright?” Specs asks, fingers catching on the back of Romeo’s jacket. 

“Absolutely fine,” he replies, voice muffled into Specs’ shirt. “Just needed to do something.”

“Okay,” Specs says, and Romeo can basically feel the smile in his voice. “Does this have something relating to you having shown up at my apartment?”

Romeo struggles to sit properly, and when he does – he locks gazes with his Specs, afraid that he’d chicken out otherwise. There’s nothing but love in them, and Romeo _wilts_ into his arms like a fucking flower or something. Fuck.

“I’m sorry,” he says slowly, the words strange on his tongue. “I shouldn’t have said…” he struggles to find the right thing to say. “I shouldn’t have…have – what I said wasn’t the greatest,” Romeo clears his throat uncomfortably, fisting his hands in Specs’ shirt. “You know, back in Jack’s café.”

Specs tilts his head to the side, his expression soft. “Oh,” he replies, “Okay, thanks. I was wondering why you’d disappeared for three days.”

Romeo jerks back. “Me? Disappeared for three days? You were the one who didn’t show up at Jack’s!”

He sandwiches Specs’ face between his palms, squishing his cheeks together. 

“I thought I told you about rehearsal?” Specs says, voice distorted, “We just got a new piece a few days ago, so I’ve been gone from nine to eight,” and something clicks in Romeo’s brain – a memory that resurfaces after being buried under his franticness to get a hold of him. _Ah_ , he doesn’t say.

 _It’s fine,_ Specs doesn’t reply.

“Then why didn’t you call back?” Romeo asks.

“Kept forgetting my phone,” Specs explains easily, but he ducks his head bashfully. “Sorry about that.”

There’s a heavy silence.

“Oh. I guess that’s fine,” Romeo announces after a while.

He pauses, shifting closer to his boyfriend, and pressing his lips to the shell of Specs’ ear. “Let’s make out now.”  

Specs flushes, dropping his eyes shyly. “Um,” he tries, fumbling his words. “I’d like that, yeah,” he admits finally, and Romeo doesn’t miss a beat – slotting their lips together in an easy movement.

If Romeo’s lips end up on something else later that night – nobody has to know.

(Really)

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMERS - 
> 
> This was set in crutchies' coffeeshop au (http://crutchies.tumblr.com/post/92543724243/spitting-out-coffee-shop-au-headcanons-more)
> 
> I don't own any characters etc etc
> 
> Follow my newsies sideblog?? (officialspecs.tumblr.com)


End file.
